Try to figure out
how you want to play. I fight by spastically mashing the buttons so dual-wield works better for me than sword and board. I started with light armor, but was getting my ass handed to me so I quickly switched to heavy armor. I leveled my Smithing as quickly as I could and mined Ebony so I could make Ebony armor and swords. I favor Health slightly over Stamina, but I didn't ignore Stamina. Weapon perks make a huge difference - for example: with 92 1-Handed and all perks (except axe and mace) in the tree my Legendary Daedric dagger will do 77 whereas my Legendary Daedric 2-Handed sword does only 55 with my 2-Handed skill at 90 (no perks in 2-Handed) - yes, you read all those numbers correctly.

I'm working on Enchating ('bought' my way to 90 from Trainers

- sorry purists

) now because I'm gonna' put Absorb Health and Absorb Stamina on the swords.

Edited to add "Legendary" to 2-Handed sword.